10th Ave. Freeze-Out

There are three ways your body instinctively respond when you are threatened; you either fight, flee or freeze.

-You should try and avoid freezing when kickboxing, the coach instructs us and then gives directions on how to defend ourselves from punches (jabs and cross punches). I feel the sweat pouring down my face while alternately shifting my fists, clothed with boxing gloves, to parry my opponent’s fierce jabs.

When I think about it (my friends say I sometimes overthink things), the instructions given by my coach apply very much to life itself. To freeze is not a constructive or helpful way of dealing with the punches life serves you with, not in kickboxing and certainly not in life, and nor is fleeing as I see it. That is something I try to teach my pupils (and myself) every day.

I do think that it’s healthy to submit yourself to a certain amount of threat/challenge in order to evolve and that’s why I’m currently in this sweaty, nasty-smelling basement with 30 other rookies trying to get the hang of the difficult techniques of uppercuts, hooks, pushkicks and roundkicks. It’s more difficult and more fun than I expected and I’m not freezing at all.

I am fighting.

It’s fun and I am sweating like a pig!